Doors shut on latest O'Leary business venture

Doors shut on latest O'Leary business venture

Less than a year since its official launch, O’Leary Mortgages has surrendered its Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) license effective March 31.

The company has shuttered its doors mere months after O’Leary Mortgage’s CEO, Alex Kenjeev, intimated the company was poised to share some big news in early 2014.

“I expect we will have some big news to share quite soon but I am not in a position to say much at the moment,” he told MortgageBrokerNews.ca at the time.

Kenjeev was also guarded when pressed for specifics about how the company has faired since its launch in late April 2013.

“We don't disclose specific numbers,” Kenjeev said in response to a MortgageBrokerNews.ca question on the number of originations in 2013. “Yes of course (we have originated deals).”

It has been a rocky road for O’Leary Mortgages, which drew the ire from brokers who believed his model was in direct competition with the mortgage industry. A planned Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals (CAAMP) keynote speech – originally planned for 2012’s Mortgage Forum – was eventually axed following broker opposition.

"Kevin O'Leary was contracted last spring to speak at Mortgage Forum 2012 and recently announced the launch of O'Leary Mortgages," wrote CAAMP in a release issued in November 2012. "It has been CAAMP's long standing policy that industry participants not be featured as keynote speakers. Kevin O'Leary is mindful of the situation and has withdrawn from participating in Mortgage Forum 2012."

What if, in the end, Mr. O'Leary is just a guy who got lucky in the easy-money dot.com 1990s. Investors need to be aware that, like other product branding ventures, when Mr. O'Leary sticks his name on something he is still playing the odds and attempting to create a self fulfilling prophesy - expert management or not.